Lake restaurateur accused of hiring hit man out of jail

Local News

The owner of a Paisley restaurant who investigators say tried to hire a hit man to decapitate a former employee has been released from the Lake County Jail.

Investigators said Antonio Orsillo, 49, who owns Big Oak Italian Restaurant & Pizza on County Road 42, gave the hit man, whom deputies would not identify, $1,000 as a down payment toward a $3,000 fee to have the ex-employee killed.

The planned killing, which investigators said Orsillo described in detail to the hit man over several weeks, was to have taken place Saturday. The remainder of the fee was to have been paid Friday.

According to the Sheriff's Office, Orsillo wanted the man decapitated with a machete -- which investigators said he owns -- and returned to him with the man's blood on it. He also wanted a jar of the blood brought to him.

Sheriff's Sgt. John Herrell said investigators think the men may have had a conflict over a woman.

Orsillo, who investigators said told them he had connections to organized crime, also said he had sacrificed six goats and used their blood to perform a religious ritual.

Orsillo was arrested about 12:20 a.m. Saturday on a charge of solicitation to commit homicide and released about 12:45 p.m. Saturday on $50,000 bail, records show.